The Newest thing to hit Bucharest

Europe's largest Hard Rock Cafe recently opened in the city last week along the lake of the largest park in the city. I think I have been to this restaurant twice, once in Boston with choir and once with friends in Minneapolis. Anyway, I'm sure the one in Bucharest will be twice as expensive, as things usually go here. I'm not a huge fan; all I want is a Taco Bell :) Just more signs that Bucharest is moving farther away from the city's communist past.

Coffee on the Go

The girl leaning up against the railing is distributing hot coffee to people caught up in traffic. It's something I have seen around the city of Bucureşti a few times. Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but I hear it's pretty cheap and not bad. It puts a whole new spin on the "drive-up window".

Barnabas Ministries

It's a new year with new objectives. Our OCI team in Romania has lots of things on tap for this new year. One of our new areas of concentration will be in forming Barnabas teams around the country of Romania. As one reads the book of Acts we find the New Testament church being birthed, taking root and bearing God-honoring fruit. In this context we are either introduced to and/or learn more about men and women who were important instruments in this birth and expansion of the church in its earliest years. Barnabas was one of those pioneers. Though not having as high a profile as Peter, John, or Paul, he impacts this fledgling body in a number of very significant ways. One of these is that he was a platform builder under others. Again and again, we find him pushing others up, helping them flourish in their spiritual health and influence. We at OCI Romania are tying to have a similar ministry in Romania: encouraging others and building platforms in ministry. We will be doing this by forming various regional teams of movers and shakers, collaborating together, praying together, and regularly meeting together. This year I hope to be more involved in mentoring strategic leaders in Bucureşti (and I fully plan to learn from them as well). Some of the other things on tap include continued development of the youth leadership network and missions mobilization through missions training courses, conferences, and trips. These are exciting times. Thank you for your prayers as we work together in Romania to bring Europe back to Christ.

Faith Formation

I have been really encouraged lately by the youth meetings of our church. It seems that we have somehow taken it to a new level. Our discussions and studies are a lot deeper, relevant, and interesting. For instance, we have looked at the issue of forgiveness and had discussions based around questions such as, what makes forgiveness hard? Why does it seem at times that Christians are the most unforgiving? Does forgiving mean you ever forget? Anyway, some deep stuff. This past week we looked at the issue of repentence as it specifically relates to the life of a Christian. We broke into small groups looking at the letters written to the seven churches in the book of Revelations. This led to even more discussions and some profund thoughts. One person stated, it seems that many churches have become just like churches in ancient Ephesus or Philadelphia for example, where things seem to be going okay, but Jesus is outside knocking on the door. Do we answer? A lot to think about. I love that we have grown as a group and are actively engaging in discipleship and talking about real, relevant issues. Thank you for your contined prayers for us. Our group is growing both in numbers and most importantly, in spiritual formation.

Winter in Romania

Driving through the slush

Skiing/Sledding at the mountains

Peleş CastleThe Bucegi Mountain Range

Data Cables

I guess when you have poles that look like this all over the city of Bucureşti, it's no wonder that we have a lot of power outages--often at the most inconvenient times. Such is life!

Bucureşti: the MOST crowded city in Europe

There are over 9,000 people per square kilometer in Bucureşti (kilometers are smaller than miles folks), which makes the city the most crowded city in Europe...and it's not even close. In second place? Berlin with about 6,000 per square kilometer. To give you a feel of what this can look like, these are pictures from the big gathering in the central square for the lighting of the Christmas tree. And the scenes from the Metrou (subway) could be from any day during the right hours. Anyway, there is NO such thing as personal space in Bucureşti....but, it is great for people watching! I wonder how long it took for those cars to move....
Rush hour at the subway

I confess...even I have walked up the railings with some youth

(truth or dare gets you every time)

Poftă Bună!

At Christmas in Romania, it's a tradition for many people to have a pig roast---slaughtering the hog and roasting it. I was recently acclimated to this national delicacy!

First big snow in Bucharest 03.01.2008

It's been a mess around here. The snow fell last Thursday and there are STILL streets that haven't been plowed at all in Bucuresti. I think Minneapolis officials need to come and present how they handle snow emergencies there. But in a city where cars outnumber parking spaces by about a 6:1 ratio, you can imagine the chaos to try and plow streets. One guy digs his car out and buries the car next to him in snow. Anyway, it's a big sloppy mess. But as we say, life in Bucharest? NEVER boring! :)

White-Out!

Woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. Bucureşti is buried in snow, airports closed, and everyone and their brother out shoveling. Officially, the city does very little plowing, saying that people know how to use a shovel. So, I gather you can imagine the mess. I've got shoveling to do! In a city where parking is already a major headache (a place to park is a privilege), snow banks along the sides of the roads don't help anything
This is after people were shoveling

A street near me

And lots of people getting stuck

Happy New Year!

New Years is the biggest holdiday in Romania. I had people asking me as early as September what I would be doing for New Year's Eve. I spent the evening with friends and my Romanian family. Throughout Bucureşti, they set up stages, concerts, and lots of fireworks. People usually stay up all night celebrating. I prayed with my Romanian mom for the new year after the clock ticked 12. I pray that you have a blessed new year and that you would all draw nearer to God with the passing of each moment. Happy New Year! The fireworks starting in Piaţa Revoluţiei
Pomp & Circumstance

Scenes of Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! Christmas was a very busy time for me, with lots to do at church, caroling, dressing up as Santa Claus for kids at a local hospital, and of course, eating wonderful food. I was blessed to spend Christmas with my very near and dear Romanian family. Here are some pictures "out and about" during Christmas time in Romania. Every Romanian Christmas meal includes the traditional bread called cozonac
In the villages, people dress in traditional costumes, and go caroling on Christmas Eve

The piaţa is where most people go to buy their Christmas tree, and then transport it on public transportation like the trams or subway

On Christmas Day, the children of my church led the service--my Romanian mom made their costumes

The entire stage was transformed into the manger scene

The music team

Our sleeping baby Jesus

Santa and his reindeer outside of the national theater in the city-center of Bucureşti

Romanian Kids-Choir =)

Came across this video of kids singing Away in a Manger in Romanian. It's refreshing to hear children singing about the birth of Christ, rather than a red-nosed reindeer.

Corul Biserici Bunavestire - Dormi copile

One of the Songs we sang at our concert last weekend. Enjoy!

An Evening of Carols

We had more than a packed house for our Christmas concert. It was a blessed evening of carols, various ensembles, poems, trumpets, Scripture, and prayer. One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music and tonight we sang my favorite Christmas piece (O Holy Night) featuring a baritone soloist from the Romanian Opera. And let me tell you, this song in Romanian is just gorgeous! Also, while waiting for several hours to send a package at the post office this week, I invited everyone in line to the concert--and praise the Lord-- some of them came! It's amazing what doors God will open when you just strike up a conversation. Thank you to those who prayed for our Christmas preparations. It was a special night where the true meaning of Christmas--Christ, the Saviour of the world's birth--was declared! Now it's time to go out caroling around the city...fun times!

Our Choir: Biserica Buna vestire (Chuch of the Good News)

Silent Night: O Noapte preasfinţitã

Investing in the Lives of Youth

Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our youth meetings; they have been going pretty well. We have been able to discuss topics such as discipleship, grace, forgiveness, pride, the wrath of God, etc., in open, lively, and truly profound Biblical discussions. We sing, we laugh, we pray together, and throughout the week, we share life together. We have a saying at our youth meetings Vorbim mult, dar trăim prea puţin (We talk a lot, but don't share life together much). Thus, one of our goals this year is to invest in one another's lives through encouragement, prayer, and simply sharing life together. Last Saturday we had a gift exchange with some pretty hilarious gifts. We had fun, but also made sure to discuss and look at the true meaning of Christmas. One of the highlights was seeing Alex receive a new guitar. Alex is a student in Bucureşti from the city of Oneşti, Romania (birthplace of Nadia Comăneci) and has been very involved in service to both the church and the community. We know he is going to use his new guitar for the Lord's glory! That's one of the purposes of our work in Romania--to invest in the lives of Romanians to be a blessing for others and to further carry the message of the Gospel to the very ends of the earth. Thanks for your continued prayers!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We will be having a large evangelism, Christmas concert at my church this month, so that means a lot of choir practices, rehearsals with children for dramas, etc. I love this time of the year! Caroling is, I would say, much more part of the Romanian cultural tradition than in America. Traditionally, Romanians will go caroling the night of Christmas Eve. At choir rehearsal, we have been singing some familiar pieces (O Holy Night, Silent Night, O Come all Ye Faithful) in Romanian, in addition to many authentic Romanian compositions. Our director says we need to have all of the pieces memorized this week, so please pray for me! Please also pray that our singing would be a blessing to those who will attend and that the true meaning of Christ's birth would be more than evident: that through God's amazing grace, He sent His one and only Son into the world, so that through believing in Him, we would be saved. What an amazing gift!

We have more rehearsals ahead and will be singing in several villages leading up to Christmas. Also note in this picture that Anca (in white) is handing out chocolate for her birthday. In Romania it is customary for the birthday boy/girl to bring treats to celebrate his/her birthday. And the Romanian happy birthday song is much more lively :)

Please pray for us as we all have a busy month ahead!

Biggest Christmas Tree in Europe

The National Day of Romania was celebrated, besides the traditional way, with the inauguration of the biggest Christmas tree in Europe on the evening of December 1. The tree is decorated with some 2,300,000 lights in Unirii’s Square. The evening was market by music shows and fireworks by the tree.

The lighting of the tree was preceded by a series of manifestations dedicated to the National Day. Hundreds of citizens gathered in Universitatii Square starting with 6 pm to enjoy the Romanian folklore music show organized by the City Hall. Later in the evening, Christmas decorations were lighted throughout the capital city streets.

Decorations this year are more modest than the ones in previous years. Bucharest’s deputy mayor Razvan Murgeanu said that the electricity poles are too old and are not able to support more decorations

The Still Shots

The over-hanging street lightsThe lights in the University Square

It's Romanian National Day: La Mulţi Ani Romania!

We took some of our youth from church out to see the parade today. I hope you too wore red, yello and blue